1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to openers for the shells of crustaceans, particularly lobsters and crabs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Crustaceans are a class of marine animals, which includes notably lobsters and crabs, having excellent tasting meat. They also are covered by an exterior boney shell which serves to make difficult getting at that meat. It is well known that the gastronomical delight of crustacean delicacies is more often than not offset by the frustration encountered by the difficulty opening the shell to get at the prized meat.
In the prior art there are two devices which offer some assistance to the frustrated diner.
The first of these is a seafood pliers, similar in many respects to a nutcracker. This device utilizes a pair of lever arms joined pivotally at one end. The shell of the crustacean is placed between the lever arms and the lever arms are leverably closed together, thereby crushing the shell. Unfortunately, crustacean shells come in a wide variety of shapes and brittleness which frequently renders seafood pliers helpless to assist the diner to get at his or her meal. Indeed, the crustacean shell is more often than not softened by the boiling process that cooked the meat, rending the seafood pliers totally inapplicable to the task of cracking the shell.
The second of these is a seafood fork, similar in many respects to a conventional fork, but generally much smaller and narrower. The seafood fork can get at crustacean meat provided the shell has been broken in advance. Using the seafood fork to crack the shell is a very dangerous affair, as the pressures that must be administered can easily result in the fork missing the shell and entering the hand of the diner.
Clearly, what is needed is a device which easily and simply enables a diner to open the shell of a crustacean so that concentration may be had on eating the dinner rather than working at access to the dinner.